Tuesday, July 01, 2003

According to former Egyptian ambassador to the United States, Abdel Raouf el-Reedy, Hamas is the crucial player in the shaky Mideast “ceasefire.”

It's now a tripartite agreement — Israel, of course, the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian groups, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Hamas is the key to this whole agreement."

So what kind of organization is Hamas anyway?

Hamas does not seek a sovereign Palestinian state living in peace with Israel. In fact, such an outcome would completely contradict Hamas’ reason for being.

Hamas considers all of Israel to be occupied territory. The only acceptable outcome of any “peace process” is Israel’s destruction through violence.

But don’t take my word for it. Read for yourself. Yale University has helpfully posted a translation of the Hamas Covenant on this website.

Article Six

“The Islamic Resistance Movement is a distinguished Palestinian movement, whose allegiance is to Allah, and whose way of life is Islam. It strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine . . .”

Note that Yassir Arafat’s PLO is a secular terrorist movement while Hamas is an intolerant fanatically religious terrorist movement. Subtle difference, I know.

Article Eleven

“The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up.”

No mention of Gaza or the West Bank. Nope, these guys want the whole thing. Moreover, I strongly suspect “Waqf” is not the Arabic word for “theme park.”

Article Thirteen

“Initiatives, and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences, are in contradiction to the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement . . . There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.”

So, all roadmaps to peace are pointless because violence is the point.

Even if Israel were to cease to exist and all its citizens voluntarily drink cyanide laced Kool AidÂ® this would still not be enough. The only acceptable solution is the one that climaxes in a SamPeckinpah-esque orgy of violence.

Even if you assume that this is just a tough opening position, it’s pretty extreme even by the standards of French labor unionnegotiators.

Article Fifteen

“The day that enemies usurp part of Moslem land, Jihad becomes the individual duty of every Moslem. In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it is compulsory that the banner of Jihad be raised.”

So these are the guys who hold the key to peace in the Middle East? Well, that’s not very reassuring.

My guess is that one of these hot heads will take issue with the ceasefire and give Israel a good excuse for obliterating Hamas once and for all.